All stories by Shekhar Gupta
All hail Modi's 1st BJP Budget
Rediff.com19 Feb 2021The Modi government is notoriously honest about one fact: It does not listen to economists, observes Shekhar Gupta.
Modi has lost the battle on farm laws
Rediff.com18 Feb 2021This crisis requires political sophistication and governance skills. This BJP has neither, observes Shekhar Gupta.
How can you measure democracy?
Rediff.com15 Feb 2021There is a vocal constituency of educated, well-to-do, articulate Indian elites who would rather go with the idea that too much democracy is a liability. That India needs a spell of benevolent dictatorship. Of course, they have never lived under one, points out Shekhar Gupta.
Why Modi-Shah failed to convince the farmers
Rediff.com4 Feb 2021In politics, if your objective is only winning elections, just Chanakya neeti might do. For governance you need both, Chanakya neeti and Ram Rajya. You can neither beat up the farmers into submission, nor dismiss them as 'Khalistanis', asserts Shekhar Gupta.
Pranab vs Sonia-Rahul: Who won?
Rediff.com23 Jan 2021Pranabda hasn't given us any indication of the tough period when he realised Sonia Gandhi had decided to give the presidency not to him, but to then vice-president Hamid Ansari. He wrested the presidency from her, and handed her the biggest defeat of her UPA years, observes Shekhar Gupta.
Why Modi should be worried about this data
Rediff.com18 Jan 2021At some stage this fall in the quality of life will begin to hurt anybody's popularity, observes Shekhar Gupta.
Do Modi-Shah understand Punjab politics?
Rediff.com10 Dec 2020The Sikhs love a good fight, and that's what the Modi government has given them.
The mystery death of Pakistan's 'holy warrior'
Rediff.com5 Dec 2020Khadim Hussain Rizvi is now gone. But the mass appeal of fundamentalism among Pakistan's burgeoning, young, illiterate, unemployed and angry population isn't, observes Shekhar Gupta.
Modi's China blunder
Rediff.com27 Nov 2020Prime Minister Modi made a strategic blunder of Nehruvian proportions -- presuming no war can happen now, and the Chinese won't be a military threat and risk their economic interests, observes Shekhar Gupta.
How China facilitated the India-US strategic embrace
Rediff.com3 Nov 2020China is now the most significant strategic concern in Washington, as in most of the world's capitals, especially the democracies. Today, strategic autonomy has acquired a sharper definition: To ward off the Chinese challenge to India's territorial integrity, sovereignty and regional stature, observes Shekhar Gupta.
Why Modi-Shah don't need NDA anymore
Rediff.com26 Oct 2020In its sway over national politics now, the Modi-Shah BJP is what the Congress was under Indira Gandhi. Why would they indulge coalition partners, their greed and egos now, asks Shekhar Gupta.
The TRP Trap
Rediff.com20 Oct 2020'The more the news media weakens, especially at this juncture of economic ruin with lay-offs and wage cuts, the more the owners and journalists weigh their value in terms who they are close to, the more they depend on the State to bail them out of trouble, slow-fry their rival, the faster it pushes us towards institutional destruction,' warns Shekhar Gupta.
Modi's twin test: Vodafone and Bihar
Rediff.com19 Oct 2020If Modi's truly a reformer and a believer in minimum government, he would bury the Vodafone ghosts now. He would also then go to Bihar, campaigning on his politically controversial reforms. Both will need him to dip deep into his accumulated political capital and risk it, suggests Shekhar Gupta.
Is India becoming a National SUSPICION state?
Rediff.com2 Oct 2020'Suspect all, fix all.' 'It is this mindset that begins at the very top of an establishment and then trickles down and across,' notes Shekhar Gupta.
Modiji, time to suspend hostilities at home
Rediff.com25 Sep 2020In a time of crisis like this, a government needs its people and politics united. A nation of India's size and diversity can't fight a stronger rival with fraying social cohesion, observes Shekhar Gupta.
Can Narendra Modi's fort be ever breached?
Rediff.com2 Sep 2020'In India, a really popular and well-entrenched leader is not defeated by a rival.' 'Such a leader has to defeat himself,' observes Shekhar Gupta.
It doesn't matter that Kamala Harris is half-Indian
Rediff.com26 Aug 2020What the Indian economy looks like next January will influence her view on India, not her genetics, notes Shekhar Gupta.
Did India's secularism die on August 5?
Rediff.com20 Aug 2020'Indian secularism doesn't deserve a tombstone. It needs a new shrine,' argues Shekhar Gupta.
The Politics of Education
Rediff.com14 Aug 2020'If there is one thing our politicians, especially those with their ear to the ground, understand, it is the reality that their voters want three things from their children's schooling: English, English, English', notes Shekhar Gupta.
India is paying for Modi's wooing of Xi
Rediff.com3 Aug 2020'China was a relationship from which Mr Modi had expected the most it seems.' 'It showed in a string of summits, and somewhat breathless celebration of Xi Jinping.' 'It was hasty and simplistic,' observes Shekhar Gupta.